Carrington Event, Solar Storm of 1859

On September 1,
1859, the sun released a solar flare that was the
equivalent of about 10 billion Hiroshima bombs
exploding at the same time. As a trillion kilograms
of charged particles slammed into the Earth's
magnetosphere, it created the largest ever solar
super storm on record. Called the Carrington Event
(after English astronomer Richard Carrington who
spotted the flare) it damaged the robust telegraph
lines, and the Northern Lights were seen as far
south as Cuba.

But back then
there were no intricate electricity power grids
criss-crossing continents, no nuclear power
stations, no large-scale agriculture based on the
use of heavy, fuel-guzzling machinery, and no mobile
phone network.

Had the Carrington
event happened today, the effect would have been
devastating.

If you stopped
people in the street and asked them what worries
them, it's fairly certain they'd talk about
terrorism, climate change, banking collapses and
nuclear war. A solar storm wouldn't be up there, but
it should be.

But other than
the telegraph, humanity had very
little dependence on technology
at the time. If another
Carrington Event happened today,
it would be a complete and utter
nightmare. A study by Lloyd’s
of London has concluded that it
would have taken a $2.6 Trillion
chunk out of the global economy
and it would take up to a decade
to repair the damage. As a
result of this collapse of the
grid, the economy would
collapse, and then society would
follow. TEOTWAWKI.

Unfortunately,
scientists insist that it is
going to happen at some point.
The only question is when. A
solar storm in July 2012 was a
near miss, by days actually.
With a little bad luck, our
planet could have been
devastated.
Fierce
solar
blasts
that
could
have
badly
damaged
electrical
grids
and
disabled
satellites.

The
bursts
would
have
wreaked
havoc
on
the
Earth’s
magnetic
field,
matching
the
severity
of
the
1859
Carrington
event,
which
is
recognized
as
the
largest
solar
magnetic
storm
ever
reported
on
the
planet.
That
blast
knocked
out
the
telegraph
system
across
the
United
States.

"Had
the
2012
storm
hit
Earth,
it
probably
would
have
been
like
the
big
one
in
1859,
but
the
effect
today,
with
our
modern
technologies,
would
have
been
tremendous,”
said
Janet Luhmann
in
an
interview
for
Reuters.
Luhmann
is
part
of
the
STEREO
(Solar
Terrestrial
Observatory)
team
and
based
at UC
Berkeley’s
Space
Sciences
Laboratory.

Luhmann
and
physicist
Ying
Liu
of
China’s
State
Key
Laboratory
of
Space
Weather
led
a
team
in
analyzing
the
magnetic
storm,
which
was
detected
by
NASA’s
STEREO
A
spacecraft
and
published
their
results
in
Nature
Communications.

“The
cost
of
an
extreme
space
weather
event,
if
it
hits
Earth,
could
reach
trillions
of
dollars
with
a
potential
recovery
time
of
4-10
years.
Therefore,
it
is
paramount
to
the
security
and
economic
interest
of
the
modern
society
to
understand
solar
superstorms.”